Navigating the Russian Visa Process

I just spent two weeks backpacking around Russia, taking trains, seeing the sights, and the number one question that I'm getting is how am I here as an American, and how do you get the visa?

As an American, it's actually quite an easy process, but let me walk you through the last couple years where I attempted to get my visa, both Belarus and Istanbul, and I failed miserably.

Most recently, last March, I attempted to get my visa in Istanbul, which meant I had to make an appointment like you do with any consulate.

So we just hit the Russian consulate attempting to get my Russian visa.

However, they had my name on the list, but they're asking us to go to the visa center.

So now we're walking 20 minutes away to get to the Russian visa center.

I hope that this is not gonna be an issue. This ended up being a complete fail, mainly because no one really knew what they were doing.

What you'll need to apply for a Russian visa as an American at the New York consulate, you start off going to this website and actually making an appointment.

Now, this should be quite easy to get. Here, you will also fill out the application form.

Then you will need to submit your passport, passport photos, and some information to get an LOI.

This is the email that I submitted it to, and then I also sent a $50 Venmo to this person.

I'm not going to show you the paper, but they sent it right away.

I also had to get insurance from this company.

It was less than $20 for my entire trip. So I'm freaking out.

I just applied for my Russian visa, and I think I'm gonna get it, so I plan on coming back in one week.

They barely asked me anything. It was incredibly easy to get this visa.

In general, people were so friendly. I didn't even show us going out in Moscow, people giving us free shots and dancing with us.

Really hope I get to come back to Russia in the future because the people here are very kind.